


in exchange

by twelvemorestopsandhome



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Companion Piece, Ficlet, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-22
Updated: 2014-09-22
Packaged: 2018-02-18 10:02:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2344379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twelvemorestopsandhome/pseuds/twelvemorestopsandhome
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>People don’t give Mickey things. Not willingly at least.</p>
<p>Companion piece to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/2341118">lay down beside me</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	in exchange

People don’t  _give_ Mickey things. Not willingly at least.

So Mickey takes things. He takes things because he has to. But he doesn’t actually give a shit about any of them. He takes things that he needs for the time that he needs them and when they have outgrown their use, he leaves them behind.

And so Mickey is less preoccupied with ownership and what’s his and more concerned with what he can use from one day to the next. He’s not going to get sentimentally attached to a fucking  _mug_  when it could end up in shards in the trash tomorrow.

In a different world, he’d be praised as  _unmaterialistic._  Focused instead on the now, the people and the world around him. In  _this_  world though, it’s because he knows things go missing or stolen. Things get lost and broken.  _Things_  don’t last.

But then there’s Ian who wants to give Mickey  _everything. Stupid_ things that Mickey swears he doesn’t even want. Clothes and Poptarts and

_his fucking heart._

_Here. Take it, please. I want you to have it It’s already yours._ Ian pleads with his eyes. But Mickey is so unused to accepting anything that he pretends not to see, pretends not to know what is being offered to him.

He breaks, of course, and finds himself in Ian’s bed. Pressed tightly up against him to fit in the tiny space. He can feel Ian’s heart practically bursting through his chest at his back and he  _wants_  to take it but what if it  _breaks_.

And then Ian snakes his arm up around Mickey’s body and places his palm flat over Mickey’s own heart.

_How about a swap instead?_

_*_

“ _And if you wanted it, I’d wish for nothing in exchange - no gifts. No goods. No demonstrations of devotion. Nothing but knowing you loved me too. Just your heart, in exchange for mine.” - Neil Gaiman, Stardust_

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know...
> 
> as ever you can find me at [themoonoversoho](http://themoonoversoho.tumblr.com/)


End file.
